TOURISM MICROENTREPRENEURSHIP: STATE OF THE ART AND RESEARCH AGENDA

Microentrepreneurship has always been an important driving force of the tourism industry. However, until recently, this sector was mostly invisible and understudied. Microentrepreneurs are now becoming influential stakeholders due to new information technologies that make their offerings easily accessible to a broader clientele and render their economic activity more transparent and taxable. There is a growing consensus that tourism microentrepreneurs can make destinations more competitive and equitable. Accordingly, there has been a surge of scholarship on tourism microentrepreneurship to inform strategies and policies to fuel microentrepreneurial development and its integration with the formal tourism sector. The purpose of this conceptual article is threefold: first, to discuss the definition of tourism microentrepreneurship and commonly used theoretical conceptualizations, as well as the evolution of research on tourism microentrepreneurship; second, to identify research gaps in the existing literature and propose avenues for future research; third, to serve as an introduction to a Special Section on Tourism Microentrepreneurship. In addition, we offer a set of practical recommendations for destination managers and supporting organizations to develop and nurture networks of microentrepreneurs, and to identify suitable and rewarding microentrepreneurial opportunities in the tourism business ecosystem.